List of largest cities

This is a list of the largest cities in the world by number of people.

The number of people in a city can be counted in three ways:UNICEF. 2012. The State of the World’s Children 2012: Children in an Urban World. New York, UNICEF.
City proper: The area that is officially part of the city, according to the government.
Urban area: An area of built-up land, with many roads, buildings, and infrastructure. It usually has many people close together, who do not work in farming. Rural land is the opposite: it has a small number of people and buildings. In this list, an urban area is an area of urban land that is continuous: it has no spaces in between that are rural.
Metropolitan area: An urban area, and nearby areas where people frequently travel (commute) to the urban area. Some of these areas are suburbs and some can have a small number of people. This is according to the government, so it can mean different things in different countries.

List

 City Country UN 2018 population estimates City proper Metropolitan area Urban area Definition Population Area Density Population Area Density Population Area Density Tokyo  37,468,000 Metropolis prefecture    Delhi  28,514,000 Capital City    Shanghai  25,582,000 Municipality      São Paulo  21,650,000 Municipality    Mexico City  21,581,000 City-state    Cairo  20,076,000 Urban governorate      Mumbai  19,980,000 Municipality    Beijing  19,618,000 Municipality      Dhaka  19,578,000 Capital city  14,543,124    Osaka  19,281,000 Designated city    New York  18,819,000 City    Karachi  15,400,000 Metropolitan city    Buenos Aires  14,967,000 Autonomous city  12,806,866    Chongqing  14,838,000 Municipality      Istanbul  14,751,000 Metropolitan municipality      Kolkata  14,681,000 Municipality    Manila  13,482,000 Capital city    Lagos  13,463,000       Rio de Janeiro  13,293,000 Municipality    Tianjin  13,215,000 Municipality      Kinshasa  13,171,000 City-province      Guangzhou  12,638,000 City (sub-provincial)      Los Angeles  12,458,000 City    Moscow  12,410,000 Federal city  20,004,462    Shenzhen  11,908,000 City (sub-provincial)      Lahore  11,738,000 Metropolitan city      Bangalore  11,440,000 Municipality      Paris  10,901,000 Commune  12,244,807    Bogotá  10,574,000 Capital District    Jakarta  10,517,000 Special capital region    Chennai  10,456,000 Municipality      Lima  10,391,000 Metropolitan municipality    Bangkok  10,156,000 Special administrative area    Seoul  9,963,000 Special city10,013,78160516,20825,514,00011,7042,18022,394,0002,7698,087 Nagoya  9,507,000 Designated city    Hyderabad  9,482,000 Municipality      London  9,046,000 Capital city  14,372,596 8,382 1,715  Tehran  8,896,000 Capital city      Chicago  8,864,000 City    Chengdu  8,813,000 City (sub-provincial)      Nanjing  8,245,000 City (sub-provincial)      Wuhan  8,176,000 City (sub-provincial)      Ho Chi Minh City  8,145,000 Municipality "512&idmid=5&ItemID=14277 Statistical Handbook of Vietnam 2014 , General Statistics Office Of Vietnam     Luanda  7,774,000 Municipality      Ahmedabad  7,681,000 Municipality  6,300,000    Kuala Lumpur  7,564,000 City    Xi'an  7,444,000 City (sub-provincial)      Hong Kong  7,429,000 Special administrative region      Dongguan  7,360,000 Prefecture-level city      Hangzhou  7,236,000 City (sub-provincial)      Foshan  7,236,000 Prefecture-level city        Shenyang  6,921,000 City (sub-provincial)      Riyadh  6,907,000 Municipality      Baghdad  6,812,000 Urban governorate      Santiago  6,680,000 City (commune)    Surat  6,564,000 Municipality      Madrid  6,497,000 Municipality  6,641,649    Suzhou  6,339,000 Prefecture-level city      Pune  6,276,000 Municipality    Harbin  6,115,000 City (sub-provincial)      Houston  6,115,000 City    Dallas  6,099,000 City    Toronto  6,082,000 City    Dar es Salaam  6,048,000City      Miami  6,036,000City    Belo Horizonte  5,972,000City    Singapore  5,792,000 Country      Philadelphia  5,695,000 Consolidated city-county  6,096,120    Atlanta  5,572,000City    Fukuoka  5,551,000 Designated city      Khartoum  5,534,000   5,274,321    Barcelona  5,494,000 Municipality  5,474,482Population on 1 January by broad age group, sex and metropolitan regions  - Eurostat, 2017    Johannesburg  5,486,000 Metropolitan municipality       Includes Pretoria Saint Petersburg  5,383,000 Federal city        Qingdao  5,381,000 City (sub-provincial)        Dalian  5,300,000 City (sub-provincial)        Washington metropolitan area  5,207,000 Federal district    Yangon  5,157,000 City        Alexandria  5,086,000 Urban governorate        Jinan  5,052,000 City (sub-provincial)      Guadalajara  5,023,000 Municipality   

Notes

References

Category:Lists of cities